Limerence
by outerspacekat
Summary: In which Tom Riddle falls in love with a time traveling girl-who-lived through a series of meetings.


Author's Note: This will start a year before Tom goes to Hogwarts.

* * *

She had appeared in his life in the same way she tended to disappear; spontaneously, without warning and dragging chaos along with her as if it was a dog on a leash and she, their owner.

Yes, Harry was a special person indeed.

.

.

Tom was never well liked in the orphanage.

Whether it be Mrs. Cole or Billy Stubbs or one of the other kids, there was always someone there to try and pick on him, someone there to bully him or throw things at him, someone to yell, taunt, scream or blame him for something.

There was something different today, however.

Mrs. Cole was acting rather… Odd.

She had given him a new set of clothes and made sure he ate a proper breakfast, something he hadn't had in a good month or so. If he didn't know better he would have said the old hag had a change of heart and was being _nice_ to him. Not only that but Billy Stubbs hadn't once tried to harass him today, in fact, he had said _please_ and _thank you_ to him earlier. It had made him immediately suspicious and on alert. Mrs. Cole was one thing, but no matter what Tom did, no matter the way he wielded his powers or what he did to the boy, he was never, _ever_ , nice to him.

Not that Tom gave him reason to. The boy was a imbecile and a bully and Tom made sure that he suffered for it whenever possible.

A preliminary scan of the other children's minds didn't give him much of answer, unfortunately. Many were nervous and excited, hoping to be adopted, but all they knew was that there was someone important coming in today and that they everyone was supposed to be on their best behavior.

When he didn't find what he wanted in their minds, he tried Mrs. Cole and he gained only a bit more information. Apparently, their special guest was one Harry Peverell, an aristocrat who had taken an interest in the orphanage and had wanted to see it and possibly make a donation.

He knew how these things worked. These people were just looking for a way to get rid of their guilt for their illegitimate children or to look good and charitable in the eyes of other socialites and aristocrats and once they donated some money- of which would never make a dent in their bank accounts- they would disappear forever, never to be seen again by any of the orphanage kids. He didn't understand why the idiots were getting excited, aristocrats didn't care about abandoned children, they cared about their image and this one was probably no different.

That's what Tom thought, at least.

Harry would prove him wrong later, he just didn't know it yet.

.

.

The sound of a car pulling up outside and the nervous whispers of the children were what disturbed him from his meditation. Snapping his eyes open, he slowly stood up and went towards the window, as if some invisible force guided him there despite his inner protests that there was no point in caring about their newest visitor. Once he was there, however, he didn't want to leave, curiosity burning inside him.

The car outside had made no movement to leave but nobody had yet come out of it either. A snide voice in his head made a comment about how they saw how disgusting the orphanage was and were trying to figure out how to politely leave. Those thoughts were pushed aside, however, when the driver of the car stepped out and went around to open the door for the person inside.

 _Of course they can't even open their own doors- fucking high society snobs_ , the snide voice snarled in his head and he nodded slightly, agreeing.

Once again, though, the snide voice was drowned out when he saw a long tan leg, and then another emerge from the vehicle, before finally, a dainty redhead stepped out. She was, perhaps, a few years older than him- she couldn't be older than 16-, and absolutely breathtaking.

Was she the daughter of the aristocrat visiting? Why did he bring her? This couldn't possibly be _Harry Peverell_ , could it?

 _Why do you care? She's older than you and you're a poor orphan, she'd never even considered being your friend_. The snide voice was back, chiding him, making Tom nod once again. The voice was right, no matter who she was, even if she didn't come from money, there was no way she would ever consider being his friend.

He was a freak, after all and there was a reason that everybody stayed away from him, willingly or not.

It took all his will power to step away from the window and stop staring at the girl that was surveying her surroundings but he did, sitting down and grabbing a book, trying to forget the redhead outside.

If he had stayed for another moment, he would have seen her drag her eyes towards his window and frown when she found no one there.

* * *

Author's Note (Again): I've been wanting to post this forever but only recently got to a rewrite. I hope you guys like it! Do review if you want more.


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